perspective

Argentina.  Buenos Aires.
That’s five thousand, five hundred miles away.  

Why did I decide to travel almost halfway across the world? 
Well, that is a long story, but I’m excited and nervous to be getting on a plane in just a little over a week.  It almost seems surreal.  When I began to think about college, Spanish was almost the last thing on my mind.  I decided to complete my language credit at Grace for my BA degree during my senior year of high school because it was required but didn’t know what to expect.  It was during this time that I first realized the beauty of languages.

Imagine a gigantic painting with just over 7,000 integral unique aspects.  Each one of these is a unique language spoken in the world.  It takes a student years of study and practice to be able to engage fluently with the people who speak just one of those languages. 

(ethnologue.com is really interesting to learn more about this)

Then add another dimension to this painting: 

Culture.  

Watercolor by: Nathan Stampe

This adds another layer to the complexity.  It is incredible to realize the magnitude and the diversity found in languages.  In God’s wisdom, he not only has created all of these languages but He can understand the meanings of all of the utterances and transcriptions of these languages.  The human mind can only slowly begin to comprehend the meaning embedded in the different sounds and symbols of diverse languages after years of study and hard work, but this does not detract from the meaning that resides in all of these avenues of communication.  I see this as a way that God is displaying his wisdom to comprehend and understand each of his people.  His creativity in the world is also displayed through the significant diversity found in the culture and languages of His creation.

This is the perspective that has driven me to learn a second language and continue to study español.  It will be a challenging transition at the start of this coming year.  One that I wish I could keep this perspective throughout.  Some days will be rough and others will be great.  But now and then it is cool to look around and see how the different language make you think differently and see the world differently.  It’s amazing how much diversity there is in the world.  So why did I choose to travel almost halfway across the world?  I want to continue learning about the wisdom and the creativity of God and develop a perspective that is bigger than myself.  I want to listen and learn in order that I will understand more about the world and the needs around me, but I do not want to forget about the time given to me now.  I’m looking forward to how this experience will grow, challenge, stretch, and change me.